


Apartments B And C

by thelonelywriter



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, Castiel and Dean Winchester are Neighbors, Deaf Castiel, Fluff, Happy Ending, Implied Castiel/Dean Winchester, Love Letters, M/M, Plot Twists, Sign Language, Some Plot, Surprises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-09
Updated: 2016-12-09
Packaged: 2018-09-07 12:50:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8801485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelonelywriter/pseuds/thelonelywriter
Summary: Opposite lives have a way of finding each other. Opposite lives have a way of sharing something that makes them not so opposite anymore.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Literally have no idea what the fuck I'm doing anymore. I wanted to write so I just randomly wrote down some words and this happened. I actually based it off of the setup of my apartment. Was gonna make it original characters but Cas and Dean snuck in there those fuckers.

There’s two buildings, houses, apartments, whatever you want to call them. One is light blue with maroon shutters on the nine windows set on the front. The other is a creamy beige with dark blue shutters on the nine windows set on the front. I would say that they’re identical, but they aren’t exactly.

 

There’s four apartments, four small apartments in each one. A, B, C, and D. B and C are both one floor up, one set of stairs up. Each door is different. Each lock is different. The door to the apartment building itself is different in each building. The light that comes on automatically in each hallway comes on at different times each night for each building. These apartments are not identical, but at a quick glance you would see them as all the same. 

 

People occupy each building, each apartment, though it’s interesting. At night the lights in the windows aren’t always on. Apartment D will be lit up, but C is dark as ever. The next night, all is dark but apartment B. No one really ever knows whose lights will be on. No one knows who will be home. The only clue you have is the sound of the door opening to the apartment. Then you know someone is going or coming. Sometimes it’s difficult to find out which one it is.

 

The beige building with blue shutters is full. A young couple in apartment D, a woman with a dog who has just moved in in apartment A. A woman and her son in apartment C. A lonely man in apartment B. This sounds normal, but I promise irony sneaks its way into this story.

 

The blue building with maroon shutters is full. Another woman with her younger son in apartment A. Apartment D is home to a woman who fights with the woman in apartment A. It annoys the older man in apartment B, the one upstairs. And in apartment C, the one right across from apartment B in the beige building, there lives a lonely man. Do you see what I’m getting at?

 

Across from each other in different buildings, buildings that line up perfectly are two men, roughly the same age, in roughly the same state of loneliness. Isn’t irony fun? It’s a little more interesting than this though, I swear.

 

The beige building with blue shutters with a lonely man in apartment B is where you can see the sun rise high in the sky every single morning. Apartment B has the perfect view, the bay window set in just the right way. It’s wonderful.

 

The blue building with maroon shutters with a lonely man in apartment C is where you can see the sun set low, melting over the landscape every single night. Apartment C has the perfect view, the bay window set in just the right way. It’s wonderful. 

 

Now is where I should probably bring in names, yes? I know it can be confusing, the man in apartment B, C, the woman here and there, it’s all a muddled mess, and I know that I hate reading stories with such… confusing interchange.

 

Apartment B in the beige building with blue shutters, the apartment with the lonely man. That one? Well, that one belongs to a man who goes by the name of Castiel Novak.

 

Apartment C in the blue building with the maroon shutters, the apartment home to another lonely man. That one? Well, that one belongs to a man who goes by the name of Dean Winchester. 

 

Castiel Novak, the man who sees the sun rise every morning, takes it in with some sort of joy. Though, working early enough to watch the sunrise is never quite fun. Seeing the sun rise in the sky makes things not as terrible as it could be, however. Castiel finds it’s not as bad as it could be.

 

Castiel Novak gets up everyday to write. That’s what he does, he writes. And he usually goes where he pleases, a coffee shop, somewhere by the beach, a library. He writes what he pleases, and it pleases him to be able to be so pleased by something that can please him. It’s quite nice.

 

Dean Winchester, on the other hand, watches the sunset with a melancholy happiness. He works nights, but it is always quite wonderful to see a sunset so beautiful every night. 

 

Dean Winchester gets up every night to work at the post office. A mail man of sorts. No, he doesn’t drive and walk around at night to deliver mail. He works in the factory itself, the place where all the mail gets sorted and handled and shipped and packed. He does many things, fixing machines, sorting mail, typing codes. It’s not the best of the best of the best jobs possible, but he’s had it for years and years and he finds that it doesn’t bother him all that much.

 

But, I didn’t come here just to tell you who lives where in what building. I came to tell you about these two lonely men who live opposite lives in opposite buildings. And I suppose I’ve told you some, but not everything. Not yet.

 

With the way their schedule works, with the way they move and shift and maneuver their lives, every morning when Castiel Novak sees the sun rise, every morning when he gets his laptop, his notebooks, his pens, his papers, everything he needs to write something extraordinary, he opens his door to see Dean Winchester.

 

Every morning when Dean Winchester is getting home from work, from a long night of work, he finds himself across from Castiel Novak.

 

Their timing is impeccable, and always the same. Dean fumbles for his keys, sleep in his eyes as he opens the door to his blue and maroon shuttered building. Cas slips his keys into his pocket as he steps off the stairs and onto the walkway. There is almost never a day when they don’t see each other. When night has fallen and Dean is leaving for work, Cas is coming home.

 

Castiel had been living in his apartment for a bit before Dean Winchester came. When Dean moved in, Cas was curious, Cas was interested, Cas was… excited. Sometimes Dean would leave his curtains open and Cas could see him go about things. Cas never watched for long, though, he refused to be named a voyeur. He could tell, however, that Dean was handsome. He knew that he was attractive.

 

They nearly never talked when Dean moved in, Cas was far too shy. But Cas always wished that he had the courage to talk to Dean. And even though they left and came back to their apartments every single day at the same time, Cas pretended not to look, and Dean pretended not to see. Because Cas wasn’t the only shy one.

 

Dean had caught glimpses of Cas and he knew that Cas was attractive. There was no questioning it. But Dean wasn’t about to hit on his brand new neighbor. 

 

They tried and pretended to ignore each other for a long time until it was obvious that they couldn’t. It was Dean who waved first. Cas waved shyly back. They got into a pattern of smiling all shy and waving softly. They never spoke, just… acknowledged each other. It was great. Until it wasn’t.

 

Dean finally got up the guts to try and talk to Cas. But, apparently, the nerve, Cas never responded. Dean talked louder, but nothing. But the waves and the smiles never stopped. Dean wasn’t quite sure what to think, but he figured stick to the simple stuff. Maybe Cas would make a move one day.

 

Cas never made that move. Fate made it.

 

Little did Dean know, Cas, being a writer, liked to write about nearly everything and anything. Including people. Including neighbors. He wrote about the woman and her son, he wrote about the couple. There was only so much to write, but he wrote what he could. He wrote about the sunrise, he wrote about the sunset he saw. 

 

And he wrote about Dean.

 

Cas was always a romantic, and he was always one to believe in love at first sight. Now, he didn’t quite think him and Dean had this “love at first sight” thing going but he believed in a spark, in something between them, even though it hadn’t quite been explored. He wished he could talk to Dean, but he had no idea how. And he wrote about it, and he fretted about it, but in the end, he said nothing, only wrote it down. And those papers, those papers with the description of Dean, only descriptions since he didn’t even know his name, those papers happened to be a little loose in his bag. 

 

It was a nice morning, chilly but nice when Dean was coming home from a long day at work. It was a chilly morning when Cas was leaving his apartment. They waved and they smiled and it was all normal. And Cas turned, as always, to head to his car, but something slipped out of his bag.

 

Dean barely caught it, only saw it when it was too late and Cas was in his car ready to leave. Dean figured maybe finally now he had an excuse to talk to this guy, this guy that he still had no idea his name. He went and grabbed the paper. It was just barely a scrap, something small, seemingly torn from a journal. Dean furrowed his brow when he looked at it. There was one single sentence on it. Just one.

 

_‘I wish I could hear your voice.’_

 

Dean was tired, and he was spent from a long day at work but it clicked. It all clicked. For once and for finally it made sense.

 

It was that night when Dean left his apartment and Cas was coming home that Dean walked right up to Cas who looked honest to God a little scared. Dean didn’t bother talking, he handed Cas the note. Cas read it and immediately turned bright red. He began to shake his head, looking at Dean with wide eyes but Dean just shook his head back.

 

‘I wish I could hear your voice too,’ Dean signed. Castiel looked like he had just been told that he had been gifted with a gift that would solve all his problems.

 

‘You’re deaf?’ Cas signed. Dean shook his head.

 

‘My brother is. I learned to sign when I was young,’ Dean signed. Cas still looked like someone told him news that was going to make everything better. Cas just let his hands freeze mid air so Dean went on. ‘Your name?’

 

‘Castiel,’ Cas signed back. Dean smiled softly. He hadn’t heard a name that nice in a while.

 

‘I’m Dean. It’s nice to properly meet you, Castiel,’ Dean spelled back. Cas slowly smiled a little.

 

‘I’m so sorry I never made a move to talk to you.’

 

‘No, don’t worry about it,’ Dean replied. Cas was still smiling when he shook his head a little. ‘I’m sorry I never caught on,’ Dean signed back with a huff of laughter.

 

‘No, no, I wouldn’t expect you to. It really was my fault. I’m just never really good with people. And nearly no one knows how to react when you tell them you’re deaf,’ Cas explained. 

 

‘Can you read lips?’ Dean questioned. Cas held his hand out and shook it a bit as if to say ‘a little’. Dean nodded.

 

‘I can but I’m not great at it. I don’t talk to people too often,’ Cas explained. Dean shrugged.

 

‘Hey, me neither,’ Dean said with a little grin. Cas smiled and looked away. There was a pause before Cas took a breath and began signing again.

 

‘That note, ignore it please. It was stupid.’

 

‘Was it about me?’ Dean signed. Cas blushed.

 

‘I mean, yes,’ he replied. Dean fought back a grin.

 

‘Hey, well, like I said I’d love to hear your voice too. But I mean, now that I can actually talk to you, I’d like to do it a lot more,’ Dean signed and Cas blushed ever harder.

 

‘You’re very nice,’ Cas signed simply. Dean shrugged and shook his head.

 

‘I’ve wanted to talk to you for awhile.’

 

Cas smiled and looked away.

 

‘I hope I’m not making you uncomfortable,’ Dean signed, realizing that he was probably coming on strong to a deaf man who he just learned his name. But Cas shook his head immediately.

 

‘No, not at all. I’m just really amazed still that you can sign,’ Cas explained.

 

‘Well, I’m really glad that I can,’ Dean signed back with a soft smile. Cas smiled back. ‘Hey, I need to get to work but I’d love to talk to you more later. I’m so glad that I got to actually talk to you,’ Dean signed. Cas nodded and smiled.

 

‘I am too, and I would love to talk to you more. Again, sorry for the misunderstanding,’ Cas replied. Dean shook his head and waved a dismissive hand.

 

‘Don’t think twice about it,’ Dean assured. Cas smiled and nodded. ‘I’ll talk to you later,’ Dean signed, slowly heading towards his car. Cas gave a definitive nod.

 

‘I look forward to it.’

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this fic is kind of a mess but tell me what you thought!! It's not really what I would usually write and it's kind of weird??? But maybe you liked it??? Idk, guys, let me know, I appreciate every kudo and comment and piece of feedback!! Hope all of you guys are well and enjoying winter and the upcoming holiday <3


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